I'll Be Right Beside You
by Yamchan
Summary: A string of fate connected Yuka to Kanzaki, forever intertwining their destinies. But they had no idea that it was crimson because of the blood that stained it red and they knew even less what that meant for them.


Delinquents bred delinquents; it was simple mathematics. Smart, well behaved women didn't fall in love with brash criminals -that was a product of fiction romanticized in movies and books, eaten up by spoiled teenaged girls with too much free time on their hands- and the opposite was just as true. Men who'd invested time and money in academia didn't marry female thugs who cursed like sailors. No, trouble makers always found their way to each other so it shouldn't have been surprising that _they_ would start to experience feelings of attraction towards one another. It should have been all but expected, actually.

Of course Kanzaki would never actually admit any fondness for Yuka, not out loud anyway. But then again he didn't really need to for those around him to realize what was happening. They'd have to be blind, deaf and dumb _not_ to notice the way they seemed to gravitate towards each other, the seemingly heated banter and occasional physical confrontations that were never actually serious. They no doubt thought the others in class were none the wiser but anyone who knew them was well aware that this was almost like Yuka and Kanzaki's twisted way of flirting. It was an odd game of chicken where they seemed to push each other to see how far they'd go before backing down out of respect for the others feelings but they never did so hearing them shout insults at one another wasn't an uncommon thing but they were never stopped because somehow everyone knew that it wasn't in earnest. It was playful fun and, though no one actually understood the odd dynamic between them, the other delinquents of Ishiyama High were happy to leave them to it. It wasn't really their place to question their relationship, after all.

But even if Yuka _was_ inclined to the stereotypical and cliche methods of romance, Kanzaki would never fall so low as to confess and ask her out properly. He'd likely never give her chocolates for White Day, any stuffed animals he gifted her would likely be from crane games down at the arcade and any flowers he might pick for Yuka in a misguided attempt at a romantic notion would likely be wilted and ugly. Just like him, or so it would seem, but the truth of the matter is that Yuka wasn't a regular girl. Sure she was a bit more normal than other members of the Red Tails but she wasn't actually fit for an average businessman who wanted to live the expected life with kids and a dog. This didn't seem to bother her though, just as Kanzaki's lack of romantic inclination didn't seem to, and in fact she likely had very high standards given her expectations.

As the son of a yakuza boss, Kanzaki was powerful on both a physical and a status level. Truthfully Yuka likely couldn't have done better. He didn't need to struggle to make good grades in school because his future position was already secured. He didn't need to struggle to assimilate into society because he would one day control it from the shadows, extorting money from the same athletes and intellectuals who had turned up their noses at his gruff appearance. He didn't need to struggle with adolescence and finding a girlfriend because, frankly, women were the farthest thing from his mind. Directing his subordinates, fighting turf wars, preparing to inherit his position as the head of the yakuza organization stationed in the city. He didn't have time for a girlfriend but yet, there he was, slowly opening up to Yuka and she never pushed him. Not necessarily because she was smart enough to know better but more than likely because she quite simply didn't feel the need to.

They would come together when the time was right. When the chemistry between them would have had enough time to properly congeal and mix, sparking reactions that made it pop and fizzle, to grow hotter and hotter until it finally boiled over in an oozing mess all over the floor. They didn't know when that might happen, or how, but to be honest neither of them were really that concerned about it.

* * *

With a grocery bag full of snacks crinkling at her side, Yuka rounded the corner at a fast, nearly frantic pace. She was practically running for all it was worth with her long auburn hair fanning out around her shoulders thanks to her quick strides, but it was the silent reassurance that she would make it in time that kept her from sprinting down the sidewalk. When she'd left the convenience store it had been 8:48 pm which left Yuka with twelve minutes to make it back home before the third episode of a new drama that had thoroughly captured her attention aired. She had more than enough time, especially going at the speed she was going. There was no need to run and, in fact, she likely didn't need to be power walking as fast as she was but Yuka really didn't want to miss this.

She'd been so excited for tonight that she had been fidgeting all day in school and she was even less capable of concentrating than usual because of it. Her mind was constantly wandering to the possibilities that tonight held, wondering what might possibly happen after that exciting cliffhanger last week. Anticipation was heady and she'd been looking forward to tonight since last Thursday so of course she'd had every intention of stocking up on snacks well before 9 pm but that proved to be difficult when she'd dozed off on the couch after getting back from school. Typical for her but she was really regretting that fact now.

Yuka was so caught up in her apparent goal of reaching light speed without actually breaking into a run that she almost didn't hear her phone going off in the back pocket of her fitted khaki shorts. By the time the overly cheerful pop music of her ringtone filtered into her brain it was already half over, no doubt preparing to send the caller to voicemail, and she flails to grab it out of her pants. "D-damn," She grumbles to herself when the missed call sound beeps out of the pink, cylindrical device just as she pulls it up to chest level.

Flipping the phone open, she's confused to find a number she doesn't recognize on the screen. Only people she personally knew had her number and she couldn't imagine any of them giving it out to someone Yuka didn't know because, ergo, anyone who would need it would already have it. She allows herself to slow to a stop for just a moment as she tries to place who the caller might be, certain that it must be someone she knew. It wasn't Kunieda's home number, Yuka had that saved in the contact list. It wasn't Nene's either, or any member of the Red Tails for that matter.

Lost in thought, Yuka begins to walk again and this time at a sedated pace but she doesn't make it very far. Just as she's passing the fenced off area of a building under construction she hears a soft wheezing sound that draws her attention up from the glowing screen of her cellphone. She peers into the darkness and at first doesn't see much of anything other than some equipment and steel beams neatly stacked to one side but then her eyes adjust and she nearly drops her bag of snacks when she sees Kanzaki leaning against one of the naked girders jutting out of the ground with what appeared to be a steady stream of blood oozing down the side of his face.

"Kanzaki-kun!?" She calls out, too surprised to move from where she was standing.

His head comes up so slowly that Yuka can't help but wonder if he'd known she was there and had been merely waiting for her to notice him. He seems to blink in an attempt to process the information his eyes were sending his brain and then his hand comes up in greeting and he grumbles an unprecedented, "Yo."

The sound of his gruff voice breaks the spell that had frozen her in place and she rushes forward, almost dropping her phone and the bag of snacks again in her rush to climb over the waist high guarders sectioning off the entrance of the worksite. "Are you alright? What happened? You're bleeding!"

"You're too damn loud, Paako." Kanzaki rumbles, tilting his head up at the sky in a show of disinterest so he doesn't have to look at her. The worry in her eyes was too much for him to handle, even when they were clouded by the gloomy shadow of night and he didn't want to admit to himself _or_ her that he couldn't move away from the beam he was leaning against without the possibility of passing out.

"You're too stupid!" Yuka counters, digging in her pockets for a handkerchief she knew must be there. After what feels like hours to her frantically beating heart, she finds it and quickly tries to blot up some of the blood that was covering the left side of Kanzaki's face, making him look like some tribal warrior or gladiator. "What happened to you? Theres so much blood, its all over!"

Kanzaki clicks his tongue as he tries to tilt his head away from her and her handkerchief, clearly not particularly concerned about the wound in question. "Some punks from another school jumped me. I was having a good time too, kickin' their asses until someone decided to grab that." Yuka glances in the direction he'd indicated with a nod of his head and her veins freeze over at the sight of a hammer laying in the dirt with blood glistening red on its metallic surface. Kanzaki doesn't seem to notice (or maybe doesn't care about) her apprehension and continues speaking as if he were retelling an uneventful trip to the supermarket. "After that, I was just pissed. I'm sure at least half of those bastards are checkin' into the emergency room by now."

The look of horror on Yuka's face was overwhelming. "K-K-Kanzaki-kun! A hammer ... you were hit in the head with a hammer!?"

Making a questioning sound, he finally looks down at her and he can't help but frown at the expression she was wearing. It was hard to believe he was still standing after that tussle, yeah, even he wasn't too sure how he wasn't laid out on the ground by now, but she didn't have to look _that_ concerned about him. "Relax Paako. Its just a scratch. I already broke the guys nose so he was moving slow and I had enough time to dodge. For the most part anyway."

He shrugs as if to say 'so what' and Yuka struggles with the overpowering desire to scream. "For the most part!? You probably need stitches you lunkhead! And a CT scan! Why didn't you call someone for help?" She chides, sounding more like an exasperated mother than anything else. Her handkerchief was soaked with blood at this point and it was becoming quite obvious that it wasn't going to stop the bleeding so she lowers her arm in defeat. "Your friends could'a helped you, Kanzaki-kun."

"I didn't _need_ help," He snaps as he stubbornly shoves his hands into the pockets of his track pants. "I was handlin' it just fine until that pussy grabbed that hammer and I handled it even better afterwards."

"That doesn't even make sense." Yuka quips, her tone of voice conveying quite clearly how unimpressed she was with his macho, post battle posturing.

"Like hell!" Kanzaki leans forward to put his face right in hers as if trying to intimidate her into agreeing with his position but Yuka doesn't back down, she doesn't even flinch. "I was all hyped up on adrenaline and rage so I beat their asses ten times harder than I normally would've. I was like a grizzly or a shark. I was seeing red, dammit!"

Yuka can't help but suck on her teeth at that. "That was your blood, you moron!"

"It don't matter what it was!" Kanzaki bellows, finally making her jump slightly. "That shit stain came at me with a hammer and even managed to bust my head open so I pulverized them, all of them! I broke their ribs, their arms and I'm pretty sure I shattered the ones knee! I paid them back double, I hurt them worse than I usually would in a random street fight but it wasn't enough! I should have killed them! I _wanted_ to kill them!"

A tense silence washes over the work site as Yuka seems to be rendered speechless and the only sound that can be heard is Kanzaki's labored breathing. She doesn't know what to say or what do and in fact Kanzaki's little outburst seemed to have quite thoroughly halted nearly all of her brain functions. Yuka had never seen him this worked up before, this pissed, and more importantly he'd never directed that kind of anger at her until now. Of course it wasn't like she was going to run off crying as a result of the way he'd yelled at her, in fact she pretty well understood where he was coming from. She'd been in her fair share of brawls, she knew how the adrenaline surged and lingered for hours afterwards. She also knew that he wasn't actually angry with her, that she'd just sort of enticed him to take it out on her by belittling his battle stance, but she'd never been on the receiving end of his sincere rage before and she quite simply didn't know how to respond.

But Yuka is a naturally lucky girl and before she can even begin stringing together a coherent response, Kanzaki is leaning forward and wrapping his arms around her petite body. Shock washes over her when he pulls her against his muscle hard frame and her nose is assaulted by a whiff of sweat and blood and cigarettes but it somehow feels comfortable in his embrace and she instinctively brings her arms up to return the gesture.

And not a moment too soon for without warning Kanzaki turns into dead weight and Yuka guaffs in surprise as she struggles to hold him up so that they don't end up on the ground. Her legs tremble slightly as she tries to readjust her hold on him, swaying precariously to and fro until she manages to fully catch her balance. "Kanzaki-kun!" She cries out only to be met with silence. He'd passed out! The bastard had passed out right on top of her! What was wrong with him, hugging her like that when all he wanted was to be carried? The nerve!

Taking a steadying breath, Yuka resolves to just drag him to her house since it was so close by and, really, she couldn't just leave him here to bleed out and freeze to death so it wasn't even actually a matter of choosing. There was only one option here and this was it. Kanzaki would do the same for her after all, it was her responsibility to make sure that he got taken care of so it is with a great deal of effort she takes up the arduous task of hauling a boy at least 30 pounds heavier than herself down the street.

Yuka certainly had her work cut out for her, that was for sure.

* * *

Nearly thirty-five minutes later and well too late for Yuka to watch the new drama without being completely lost, Kanzaki was huddled in the corner of her bed looking like a flustered ally cat that had been unceremoniously plucked out of a garbage can and taken inside without its consent. He was warily eying the stuffed animals in her room as if he thought they might spring to life at any moment and attack him and he seemed as equally put off by the flower patterned comforter which was now balled up at his feet after he'd thrown it off himself in near disgust. Yuka really didn't understand what his problem was. After all she kept her room pretty clean, it was a lot cleaner than his room probably was anyway, but she was too caught up in her own unease to really be offended by his reaction.

She'd never had a boy in her room before, not a real one anyway. Occasionally her father would come in but this was completely different. When she'd joined the Red Tails she'd sworn to hate all men, to never let them affect her or her decisions but yet here she was with one of her male classmates not only in her room but he was also half naked in her bed! What was she suppose to do about all of this? Offer him tea and some of her snacks or show him straight to the door? Of course she wanted him gone, out of embarrassment if nothing else, but the latter option rubbed her the wrong way because she didn't _actually_ hate men (she'd long suspected the same for many of the other gang members, truth be told) and she wanted to make sure that he was alright on principle if nothing else. But her mounting concern was something altogether separate. After she had finally managed to stop the bleeding on his temple, she'd bandaged him up nice and tight, she'd even checked his abdomen to make sure he wasn't badly hurt anywhere else even though getting his shirt off had been an incredibly embarrassing task for her. But now she didn't know where to go from there.

It was true enough that Kanzaki and her weren't exactly strangers as they'd hung out plenty of times before but that was almost always with other people around and it was never ever in a bedroom! Far be it that Yuka expected Kanzaki to force himself on her the first chance he got but surely there should have been baby steps leading up to this moment!

"Uh ... h-how are you feeling?" She finally ventures in an attempt to calm her nerves by breaking the silence with a completely normal topic. Maybe conversation would distract both of them enough to forget about how awkward all of this was and they could move on to more pressing matters that didn't involve stuffed animals or Y chromosomes. Or at least that was what she was hoping for anyway.

Kanzaki slowly shifts his gaze away from an overly cheerful looking plush squirrel that was situated on Yuka's desk and was, thus, far too close for comfort. He eyes her for a moment with an unreadable expression before answering her in the stiff monotone of someone who didn't want to make any sudden movement or sound lest he attract the attention of the beast in the room. "Better ... I don't feel lightheaded anymore, I guess."

"Good." Yuka responds a bit too optimistically and the room falls into uncomfortable silence again. She just didn't know what to say or do to break the ice here. It was such an unfamiliar situation, she'd never had to deal with something like this before so she was having trouble wrapping her head around it and it certainly wasn't helping matters that this was Kanzaki instead of some other, inconsequential boy. If it were Oga or Himekawa or anyone else from her class this wouldn't have been so awkward!

"Thanks ..." He suddenly says, making her heart leap up into her throat. "For helpin' me out back there. It must've sucked trying to haul my ass all the way to your place."

Yuka is quick to hold out a mollifying hand. "Not at all! My house is right down the street from where they're putting that new building so it was a cinch!" Fidgeting slightly, Yuka finds herself unable to suppress a warm blush thats decided to creep onto her cheeks so she looks away from Kanzaki under the pretense of grabbing his neatly folded shirt and jacket from the short table in the center of her room. "I'm sorry that I couldn't have done a bit more for you but I'm not a doctor. You should probably go to the hospital just to make sure that you don't have a concussion or nothin'." She returns to the bed and sets his stuff on the mattress before him, unsure of what to do next. She didn't want to rush him out the door especially if he still wasn't feeling good but she also didn't want to make him anymore uncomfortable than he clearly already was.

The entire situation was a double edged sword and she hated it.

Kanzaki eyes her a moment before sighing and propping his chin up in his hand, leaning heavily against his own knee to do so. "Geez, Paako. You're givin' me the boot already?"

"W-what?! No!" Yuka insists, this time unable to hide the reddening of her face even if she'd tried. "I'm giving you the choice! You can leave or stay, I really don't give a damn!" She juts her lips out and crosses her arms over her chest, unrepentantly pouting in front of a yakuza heir. "Besides, I already missed my show because of you so its not like I have anything else to do."

"Well excu-u-u-use me, princess. Next time I'll make sure to get into a fistfight as far away from your place as possible so I won't ruin your TV time again." He grumps as he reaches out to grab his tshirt.

Yuka feels annoyance spike within her at his sudden attitude, especially since she hadn't actually been serious about the TV thing and had used it as more of an excuse to sulk than anything else. Was he still just cranky from the fight or did he actually think she'd prefer a show over his life? "Thats pretty rude to say to someone who just saved your life, _senpai_." She all but hisses the word, making sure to put enough emphasis on it that he wouldn't miss the implication.

"I didn't ask you to do nothin' for me." Kanzaki half sighs, half growls.

"So you wanted me to just leave you there to bleed to death?" She asks through clenched teeth, almost unable to believe what she was hearing. He had some nerve to be saying all of this especially after she struggled so much to even get him here in the first place.

Kanzaki clicks his tongue as he pulls the shirt on over his head and he glares up at her in annoyance as he yanks it down to cover his stomach. "I was just about to call someone to come get me before you showed up. I would've been fine with or without you."

Yuka's mouth falls open in shock. "This is the thanks I get for helping you? You telling me that you don't need me?!" She hollers, more hurt than angry now but too proud to let it creep into her voice.

"You want me to thank you?" He demands, his voice rising to match hers.

"Maybe a little!" Yuka all but screams, intent on winning this shouting match.

Kanzaki must be given credit though because for someone as injured as he was, he turned out to be incredibly fast on his feet. In mere seconds he'd jumped up off the bed and grabbed her shoulders before she could even react to the sudden movement, shoving her backwards until she hit the wall adjacent her bed. Yuka has just enough time to let out a startled cry and then his rough, dry lips are on hers. She freezes, going completely rigid under his weight as he presses his mouth against hers so hard that it almost seems like he's trying to fuse with her. Time slows to an almost complete stop and she struggles to understand what had just happened.

One second he was on her bed and then the next he had her pinned against the wall with a kiss.

Kissing. They were kissing.

Yuka was being kissed by Kanzaki.

Just as suddenly as it had happened, he pulls away from her as if scorched. She's too stunned to move, her body pressed nearly flat against the wall as she stares up at him with wide eyes and flushed cheeks. Kanzaki was viciously glaring at her but the faint blush thats claimed his own face bellies his apparent agitation. Yuka knew even less what to say to him now and he ends up being the one forced to speak first though it does very little to break the tension in the room.

"Theres your dumb thanks!" He snarls before turning and stomping over to the bed where he grabs his track jacket. He makes a prompt and rushed bee line for the door and Yuka can do little else but stand there and listen to him tramp down the stairs before the sound of their front door slamming shut echoes through the house. Silence descends on the Hanazawa home once more and Yuka finds herself slowly sliding down to sit on the floor with her back against the wall.

Just what the hell had happened? One second he'd seemed irritated by her very presence and then the next he was kissing her then he was right back to glaring daggers at her. And more importantly what kind of thank you was that anyway? They hadn't even held hands yet and he was already showing his appreciation with lip locking!?

This, Yuka decided at last, was a very bad situation.

* * *

AN: Ah, young love ~ I must admit, readers and friends, that I have a soft spot in my heart for delinquents so I have a sneaking suspicion that this might end up morphing into my baby. I love street punks and thats part of what makes Beelzebub so very enjoyable for me but I'd be lying if I said that the relationships popping up here and there aren't what keeps me coming back consistently. And thats what I want to try to convey in this story. I want the focus to be on gang activity and decidedly _unromantic_ things but for the blooming love between Kanzaki and Yuka to be undaunted by it all. I want it to shine through all the shit going on in their lives and I hope to entertain some people along the way as well. That being said, feel free to drop me a line and tell me what you think. Criticism and praise are equally welcome. : )


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